Why are some UK Universities asking for funding aid from the Government?
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00:00So of course universities are in sort of a bit of a pickle because of course many of
00:05them expanded on the basis that sort of having lots of money but being brought in by fees
00:09allowed them to sort of to provide bigger facilities which of course was great but of
00:14course you need lots of sort of students to sort of to fund that and so in a sort of declining
00:18market as it were then of course you are faced with sort of difficulty of covering the costs.
00:25Back in May, according to the Higher Education Regulator's annual health check, it was revealed
00:30that an increasing number of universities in England face a material risk of closure
00:36unless costs are cut dramatically or merge over the next few years. A report by the Office
00:42for Students found that universities are supposedly reliant on fees from international students
00:47to plug the gaps left by the declining income from domestic students' fees.
00:52It's a bit like public authorities, if they sort of go bankrupt then of course that there
00:57is a sort of a duty on the government to try and do something and I think the sort of the
01:01view of the government is that the universities need to sort themselves out which of course
01:05may sort of be either sort of closures but I suspect it'll be more to do with sort of
01:09mergers of institutions because of course what you have are many sort of thousands of
01:13students at an institution who need to finish their degree course that there is an awful
01:17lot of uncertainty at the moment and of course this is going to undermine the sort of the
01:21attractiveness of certain institutions and undoubtedly you know that they talk about
01:26market forces, the market forces will dictate that some universities will sort of prosper
01:30and some will not but as I say I think the sort of the uncertainty is difficult and of
01:34course it's difficult for the staff involved because of course they're sort of facing the
01:39potential for sort of their jobs disappearing or sort of taking on extra responsibilities
01:43and so on. It's problematic but there is no doubt you know we always need well sort of
01:48trained and educated people so that will continue for sort of for the you know for
01:52as long as I can sort of see in the future yeah so I don't see that changing but I do
01:57sort of see some sort of change in the sector.